Nueva Alianza 57: 222 hectares destroyed in Paraguay's forest reserves
In twelve days, Paraguay's anti-drug agency and Brazil's Federal Police destroyed 222 hectares of cannabis and 44 growers' camps, much of it inside nature reserves such as Mbaracayú and Morombí.
🇵🇾 Canindeyú and Caaguazú · Paraguay
- Hectares
- 222
- Cannabis
- 5,250 kg
- Value (official estimate)
- USD 100,687,500
Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) announced on 31 August 2026 the results of the 57th phase of Operation Nueva Alianza, run jointly with Brazil’s Federal Police.[1] For twelve days, teams went by air and on foot into the forests of Canindeyú and Caaguazú.[1] They destroyed 222 hectares of cannabis and dismantled 44 camps where growers lived and worked.[1]
Senad counted 671,250 kilograms of cannabis as “annulled”: about 666,000 kilograms of crop that would have been harvested, and 5,250 kilograms already harvested.[1] It put the loss to the growers at USD 100.7 million.[1] The operation also involved Paraguay’s air force, its internal defence command and the public prosecutor’s office.[1] The report names no arrests.[1]
Inside the reserves
Most of the work was in protected areas: the Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve, the Morombí and Caaguazú reserves and Estancia Pindó.[1] Mbaracayú became Paraguay’s first UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2000, and with Morombí it protects some of what remains of the Atlantic Forest of Alto Paraná.[2] On 24 August, with the operation still under way, the count stood at 145 hectares eradicated and 24 camps dismantled.[2]
Eradication removes the plants, not the clearings cut for them, which can be planted again.[2] Neither Senad nor the Federal Police has said whether the cleared land in the reserves will be restored.[2]
Photos and video
- Agents pull up plants in a cleared forest plot, a police helicopter behind them Photos: La Nación (Paraguay), archived copy
- A helicopter lands beside a cannabis field among tree stumps Photos: A Crítica, archived copy
Sources
- Nueva Alianza 57 asesta golpe de más USD 100 millones al narcotráfico. La Nación (Paraguay), 31 August 2026. In Spanish. Archived copy.
- Operação destrói 145 hectares de maconha plantados dentro de reserva da biosfera da Unesco no Paraguai. A Crítica (Campo Grande), 24 August 2026. In Portuguese. Archived copy.